Christmas in Sun Valley

We just returned from a GREAT trip to Sun Valley (this was written in January and never posted...woops). 

The boys and I flew from Lewiston to Boise there and back.  Josh drove with all of our luggage.  It was so worth the money.  The boys did great on the plane.  We were the last ones off the plane when we landed in Boise and the pilot let Brendan go up to the cockpit and sit on her lap...pretty cool!  These pics are really dark but they give you the idea.  Brendan thought it was neat but I don't think he knows exactly how special that was.

Brendan also was able to go skiing for the first time.  We took him to little ski hill right next the Sun Valley Resort called Dollar.  They have a really small little hill with a magic carpet.  Brendan did a great job and had a smile on his face the entire time.  It made it even better that Josh's cousin Amy and her son Dirk (only 4 months older than Brendan) and husband David were able to join us.  Brendan loves to be with Dirk.  One of the highlights of being in Sun Valley is being with David, Amy and Dirk (we are very thankful for them).  Dirk and Brendan went skiing again the following day at another small ski hill in Hailey.

While in Sun Valley Josh and I were able to go skiing one day with Kerry.  Karen was so gracious and gave up her day to spend time with the boys so we could go.  They had a fun Grammy day.  Once you ski and Sun Valley you are spoiled to be able to fully enjoy anywhere else.  The snow is always good, the sun is almost always out, the lift lines don't exist, the runs are long, and there are so many runs you don't have to ski the same one unless you want to.  It was a very fun day.  Thank you Kerry and Karen for making it happen for us!!

It is always fun to spend time in Hailey.  The boys loved being with Grammy and Grandpa J and were spoiled by all family.

Christmas 2012--Better Late than Never

Merry Christmas!!!

We've had a very busy but fun November and December.

We were able to celebrate Thanksgiving with Jamie's parents and our dear friends the Bumpus Family.  Thank you Matt, Amy, Jonothan, Scott, and Luke for including us...we had so much fun with good friends and family. 

The rest of November and December were a blur.  This year Jamie's family decided to do all homemade gifts.  This kept Jamie busy most nights after the boys went to bed.

Here are a few things she made:
Magazine Holder
 
Necklace
 
Treadmill ipod Sling


Cinnamon Almonds

Rice Packs

 Wine Glasses


From Brendan we had him color on some black paper and then we cut them out and made it into checkbook covers.


It was fun to open gifts and really special to see the time and effort people spent to make our gifts.  The only down side was it took away a lot of time from your spouse and kids as we all spent most of our down time working on gifts.  Next year we decided we should not do gifts and go to Hawaii instead :)

Just before Christmas we went to Missoula to celebrate Jenni graduating from college.  We could not be more proud of her.  She was working 35 hours a week, taking 20-21 credits, and is married...that is a lot.  It was a joyfully tearful and special celebration of her accomplishment!!  WAY TO GO JEN!!!

The weekend before Christmas we spent the weekend with Jamie's family and Priest Lake.  The snow was beautiful.  We enjoyed some down time, sledding with Brendan, snow shoeing together, and laughing at the now very humorous Brendan and Evan.

Brendan is just over 2 1/2 and is so much fun.  He is using his words so well.  He sings his ABC's, he also loves to sing Frosty the Snowman and Jingle Bells.  He continues to live with so much joy.  He loves it when people tease him and loves to make other people laugh. 

Evan is 10 months old (CRAZY).  He is a mover and a shaker.  He loves to climb up on everything, is an explorer.  He loves to play peek-a-boo from behind a door.  He has become a very happy, smiley, content little dude.  He has really great fine motor control, he loves to pick up everything (he is a human vacuum, we have to be careful).  He continues to be a talker.  He just started to say Mama and Dadda (that will melt your heart).


Christmas Morning was really special.  We were able to celebrate in our house and Jamie's parents and Grandma came to join us.  It was fun to sing Happy Birthday to Jesus, enjoy cinnamon rolls, and open gifts together.  Santa brought Brendan a new Monster Truck and MiMi and Ba gave Brendan a race car track...what else does a 2 year old need :)  Evan really likes music.  He was excited to get a xylophone some music singing animals.  Later in the day we went over to Jamie's parents house and enjoyed a great lasagna Christmas dinner together.

 

The following morning we headed to Sun Valley to visit Josh's family.  This will be our next post.

Merry Christmas!!